The present invention relates to the architecture of computer implemented database systems. More particularly, the present invention addresses requirements to flexibly associate, order and retrieve data within and from computer systems.
Electronic information storage and management is a fundamental aspect of most business and government activities in the industrialized world. Even minimal improvements in the art of database design and structure can have profound effects in the operational efficiencies of numerous organizations and even entire sectors of the economy.
The exponential growth of data generated by Internet traffic has especially created huge opportunities for those enterprises that can rapidly benefit from the creative and innovative analyses of previously unavailable information. Yet conventional database designs are most effective in ordering and retrieving data in accordance with previously defined relationships among the data elements.
Additionally, large organizations typically have multiple points of data entry and management within a distributed computer network. These networks will usually receive data from a variety of sources and from numerous kinds of sources, such as Internet messages and manual transference from hard copy documents. Information management in these cases is made all the more challenging because the value and significance of the data being entered is often indefinite or unknown at the time of data capture by the system. In addition, the significance of data can change over time in unforeseeable ways.
There is, therefore, a long felt need in the art of computer implemented database design, generation and use to provide a method to flexibly create relatedness among the stored data elements in relationship patterns that are often of unforeseeable or unpredictable significance, nature or value at the time of entry of some of the data values.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique to relate data stored in a computer database to other data stored therein and that is related to a specified entity.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method to uniquely identify individual data stored in a computer database.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodology to relate new data to previously identified entity or to new a newly specified entity.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a computer implemented database system, which is oriented to the organization of amorphous data.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention are achieved by the method of the present invention wherein the generation of a unique identification number is generated within or provided to, a computer implemented database system for an entity of interest. Consider that an entity of interest might be a customer, a project, a part, a supplier, an employee, an account a competitor, or any number of material, actual, fictional or abstract things, beings, persons, organizations, ideas, documents, files, wirings, formulations or constructs. Identifying the existence of an entity of interest within the database system can be accomplished by creating an Entity License with an Entity License Number Field. The Entity License Number is a number that is unique to, or uniquely distinguished from, all license numbers through out the database system.
Associating an attribute with an Entity License may be accomplished by creating an Attribute License. The Attribute License provides at least three fields, these necessary fields being an Attribute License Field, an Entity License Number Field, an Attribute Value Field. The Attribute License may contain other optional fields, such as an Attribute Name Field or additional Entity License Number Fields.
The Attribute License Number Field contains an Attribute License Number that is unique to, or uniquely distinguished from, all license numbers found within the database. The Entity License Number Field contains an Entity License Number to which the instant Attribute License is thereby associated. The Attribute Value Field specifies the Attribute Value that is associated with the referenced Entity. The optional Attribute Name Field may contain information that describes a category or quality of information to which the Attribute Value is related. The optional additional Entity License Num to which the Attribute Value is related. The optional additional Entity License Number Fields enable the association of the Attribute License, and thereby the Attribute Value with more than two Entity Licenses, by means of including at least one additional and relevant Entity License Number in the additional Entity License Number Fields.
An example of the design of an Attribute License might include the association of an Attribute Value of RED with an Attribute Name of COLOR and with a unique Entity License Number. The inclusion of additional Entity License Numbers in this example might allow the same Attribute License to associate the color of red with an automobile, an apple, a dress and a graphic image element.
Relationships between Entities can be recorded in the database by means of a Relationship License. A Relationship License minimally contains a Relationship License Number Field, a First Entity License Number Field and a Second Entity License Number Field. The Relationship License Field includes a Relationship License Number that is unique to, or uniquely distinguished from, all license numbers contained within the database. The First and Second Entity License Number Fields contain Entity License Numbers. The First and Second Entity License Numbers recorded in these two fields may be identical, as on occasion a relationship may be found to be self-referential, such as where a particular employee is authorized to change a status indicator relating to himself or herself. Either the First or Second Entity License Numbers may be designated with a FROM quality or a TO quality, whereby a vector or flow indicator is indicated the Relationship License. The FROM/TO vector of the Relationship License may be to inform the database system that the instant Relationship License presents a directional aspect of a relationship existing between two or more entities.
Additional optional Entity License Number Fields with additional Entity License Numbers may be included in a Relationship License whereby more than two Entities are designated as being related. These additionally generated Entity License Number Fields may alternately be designated as presenting FROM, TO or other qualities.
The indication of the FROM or TO qualities may alternately be made by the order of the Entity License Number Fields within in the Relationship License itself, or by the value of the Relationship License Number, or by some additional Tag Field Value, or by some other method known in the art. The indication of the relatedness of a specified quality, by any means disclosed herein or known in the art, to an Entity License Number or an Entity License Number Field is referred to herein as the tagging of the instant number or field.
The method of the present invention further comprises the creation of a fourth optional license, identified as a Relationship Attribute License. Relationship Attribute Values may be associated with designated Relationship Licenses by means of the Relationship Attribute License. A Relationship Attribute License format contains at least a Relationship Attribute License Number Field, a Relationship License Number Field and a Relationship Attribute Value Field. The Attribute License format may further contain other optional fields, such as a Relationship Attribute Name Field or additional Relationship License Number Fields.
The Relationship Attribute License Number Field contains a Relationship Attribute License Number that is unique to, or uniquely distinguished from, all license numbers found within the database. The Relationship License Number Field contains a Relationship License Number to which the instant Relationship Attribute License is thereby associated. The Relationship Attribute Value Field presents the Relationship Attribute Value that is associated with the referenced Relationship License. The optional Relationship Attribute Name Field may contain information that describes or denotes a category or quality of information to which the Relationship Attribute Value is related or designated as being associated with. The optional additional Relationship License Number Fields enable the association of the Relationship Attribute License, and thereby the Relationship Attribute Value contained therein, with more than one Relationship License, by means of including at least one additional Relationship License Number in the additional Relationship License Number Fields.
An example of the design of a Relationship Attribute License might include the association of an Relationship Attribute Value of MOTHER, and optionally denoting a Relationship Attribute Name of PARENT, with a unique Relationship License, wherein an Entity License tagged with a FROM quality denotes a patient Mary Smith and a Entity License tagged with a TO quality, identifies a child Frank Smith, are specified. The inclusion of additional Relationship License Fields and Numbers in this example Relationship Attribute License might allow the same Relationship Attribute License to associate Mary Smith""s parental state of motherhood with more than one child.
The flexibility of the method of the present invention allows for the association of data to an established Entity License by the database system in cases where the desire or intent to include such new data as associative with the Entity License was wholly unexpected or even unforeseeable. This characteristic of the method of the present invention enables the present invention to provide an evolving capability to a data base system, where the structure of the interrelatedness of the data develops in to meet unpredicted data management requirements of data base system users.